Do Not Throw Away Your Confidence
Self-confidence is essential for success, but even more vital than self-confidence is God-confidence. Without God-confidence, molehills can morph into mountains, and grasshoppers can seem like giants.
Triple A
Emotions are in part meant to be a radar for us. A warning system of sorts that alerts us that something is amiss, our focus and direction has veered off course.
Q&A
Faith and trust. The definitions of these words don’t change based on our feelings. Even when our flesh reacts. Even when our mind doubts. They remain the same.
Why Waiting on God is Hard (And What Habakkuk Teaches Us)
The Struggle of Waiting on God The Prophet Habakkuk knew a little something about waiting on God. Although his story is from thousands of years ago, its lessons are still relevant today, especially in our drive-through culture. A World That Hates to Wait Most of us hate to wait. Waiting takes patience, a virtue that can be in short supply. We expect to get our food and internet at lightning speeds, and when we don’t, we become anxious and sometimes a bit testy. We tend to treat God with this same impatience. We want God to be a drive-through God who gives us what we want when and how we like it. We grow impatient when God doesn’t answer our prayers when or how we expect Him to, and we have to wait. We often try to run ahead of Him and take things into our own hands, which rarely ends well. What if, instead of hating the waiting, we learned to embrace the wait and to recognize that it is in the wait that we find God? Habakkuk’s Cry: “How Long, O Lord?” Habakkuk’s name means “one who embraces.” Habakkuk lived in Judah around 600 years before Christ was born. Judah was in spiritual and moral decline. Corruption and injustice were everywhere. What was happening in Judah was not much different than today. When we read Habakkuk 1:2-4, we could be talking about our world. Habakkuk described Judah like this: How long, O LORD, will I call for help, And You will not hear? I cry out to You, “Violence!” Yet You do not save. Why do You make me see iniquity, And cause me to look on wickedness? Yes, destruction and violence are before me; Strife exists and contention arises. Therefore the law is ignored And justice is never upheld. For the wicked surround the righteous; Therefore justice comes out perverted.” Habakkuk was heartbroken about what was going on in Judah. He had been crying out to God for his people over and over. He wanted to know WHEN God would do something about the corruption and injustice in his country. Sound familiar? “How long, oh Lord?” At one time or another, most of us have asked God that very same question. WHEN God, are you going to do something about that? All of us have a “that.” Every day on the news, there is a “that.” Some of us work with or live with a “that.” COVID-19 is a that. When Lord are you going to do something about that? God’s Unexpected Answer God didn’t answer Habakkuk’s prayers in the way he wanted or expected. God said: “Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days— You would not believe if you were told.” Habakkuk 1:5 If I heard that from God, I would be saying, GO GOD GO! Do it, God! Do it! But then, in the rest of Chapter 2, God tells Habakkuk what it is He is actually going to do. And, it wasn’t what Habbakuk wanted or expected. God said He would raise the evil nation of Babylon in judgment against Judah. That was God’s answer. God was going to use the wicked to judge Judah. But He also assured Habakkuk that Babylon would not escape judgment either (Habakkuk 2:6-20). In His perfect justice, God holds all nations accountable—including those He uses as instruments of discipline. Wrestling with God’s Plan Habakkuk was beside himself. He continued to question God. He wanted to know why God was answering his prayer in this way. He wanted to know how long God planned to allow Babylon to continue its evil without judgment, without consequence. Babylon was conquering nation after nation; they seemed to be unstoppable. It seemed like the bad guys were winning, and Habakkuk struggled to understand why God was allowing it. But even in the darkest moments, God remained sovereign and in control—something Habakkuk would soon come to realize. Habakkuk’s “that” was Babylon. When God are you going to do something about “that”? Habakkuk wrestled with honest questions, not because he didn’t believe in God’s goodness or His sovereignty, but because He didn’t understand why God was doing what He was doing. He truly wanted to know God’s heart. And He was willing to wait on God. But how? How did he do it? How did his faith remain strong in the middle of his wait? Positioning Ourselves to Hear God Habakkuk decided what he’d do in Habakkuk 2:1 “I will stand on my guard postAnd station myself on the rampart;And I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me,And how I may reply when I am reproved.” Habakkuk positioned himself like a guard on a watchtower on the city’s edge. The watchtower is high up where the guard’s view can’t be easily obstructed. The guard can see what is coming. Notice, Habakkuk said, “I will stand and watch to see what He will speak to me.” He made a deliberate choice to position himself in a place where he had an unobstructed view to WATCH AND WAIT for God. We must make a deliberate choice too. When we are hurt and don’t understand why, our pain can distort our view of God. We must ask ourselves, “Do I stay at the world’s level (ground level) where my view is blocked by whatever is right in front of me: my pain, my fear, my doubt, other people’s opinions? Or, by faith, do I choose to climb up out of that pain, fear, and doubt, to that watchtower, where I can position myself to WATCH AND WAIT FOR GOD? Staying on Watch: Don’t Abandon Your Post If a guard on a watchtower abandoned his post, the city could be lost. A guard stays on his post no matter what. Let me put it this way: Have you ever been in a long line at Walmart, a cart full of groceries, waiting to check out, and then the cash register light
What If
“What if I go through my life believing and following the Bible and Jesus, and the Bible is just a made-up story and Jesus was just some nice guy who did good things?”
Let’s truly ponder that for a minute or two… What if? What if it’s all a made-up story, what have I lost?
He Who Has Ears Let Him Hear
When we don’t listen to the Word we forfeit the kind of life Jesus died for us to live, and even bigger yet, we fail to show love for our Lord and Savior the One who gave it ALL. That breaks my heart. Does it break yours?